Be Strong
by Phoenix-Fire Power
Summary: Edwina Elric remembered something her mother had once told her. Fem!Ed, Male!Winry EdxWin moment at the end.


-1Edwina Elric will never forget something her mother had told her once.

In their family on her side the woman was supposed to stay home and take care of the house and children while the man worked. That's how it's always been in their family for as long as Trisha could remember.

The girl did go to school but only to a certain grade then she was taught at home about sewing, cooking, cleaning, and all sorts of other things needed to keep an orderly house.

How to bite your tongue. Remain faithful to your husband even if he doesn't remain faithful to you. And teach the girls the same way you were taught.

Trisha never had questioned that in her life since it was the way she knew since she was born. However something happened that made her open her eyes a little more.

When she had gotten pregnant the first time she had wanted a boy, instead it was a girl. Not that it mattered to her she loved Edwina with all her heart and soul only that she wanted a son whom she, or rather her husband Hohenheim, could boast about being a great doctor or teacher or some other thing like that. And as Edwina went to school and when she had finished third grade Trisha made to pull her out and teach her like she was taught.

Edwina exploded; there was no other word for it. She had screamed and raved and cried and had nearly destroyed the house with her yells.

"I'm going to continue going to school! I'm going to make something out of myself! I WON'T BE A HOUSEWIFE, I WILL WORK AS WELL!"

She didn't know what to do Trisha told Edwina that night. So she called her mother on advice.

Her mother had told her that the same thing had happened with her own sister and so her father had punished her until she had gotten the message. Corporal punishment.

Trisha couldn't bare to lift a finger, let alone a belt, towards her beloved daughter. So she went to the next person who she considered a mother, Pinako Rockbell.

Pinako, when they had first met, had showed Trisha a different side to women then she was used to seeing. Pinako was tough and determined and worked for a living. She was no stay at home mother, and later grandmother, she was not afraid to talk back, fight, or do anything like that. She would make herself be heard if there was something that she didn't like. Unlike Trisha who was taught that a woman should either hang off her husbands arm or in the shadows not drawing attention to herself.

She had decided however to wait a bit before going to Pinako. And a little while later both Alphonse and Edwina had preformed alchemy. Alchemy was something she was used to seeing from Hohenheim but not from her children, and she knew what her mother would say, or even do, if she heard her granddaughter was performing alchemy, something only men should do.

Trisha then went to Pinako and asked for advice. "What should I do?"

"What do you want to do? And I mean you not what you were taught." Pinako had answered raising her eyebrow.

The answer was clear to her. Let Edwina continue school. Let her continue to learn alchemy. Let her make something of herself in this world other then a housewife.

And so Trisha had let her. She sent Edwina to Pinako most of the time since she didn't know how to raise her that way. But one thing that she had made clear with teacher Alphonse was this. Girls are equals and no one should underestimate them. Yes treat them with respect but as an equal as well.

She made sure her daughter knew this:

"_Edwina. Do what you wish. In our family it is common, no it was tradition, for the girl to be another trophy for the husband while he did whatever it is he wanted. Don't be like that. Go out into the world and do as you wish but know this my little girl. Never let anyone tell you 'just because you're a girl' and that you are inferior to any boy anywhere. Remember that Edwina."_

And when Trisha passed away Edwina had remembered what she said. It was only strengthened when she and Al had gotten an alchemy teacher. A woman!

While she looked to her mother for some things as a role model she looked to Izumi, and later Riza, for other things as well. They were both girls but neither one had let that stop them. In fact it only made them desire all the more to prove themselves.

Edwina saw herself as any mans equal and knew that once she decided to settle down and start a family she wanted someone that knew that and wouldn't try to put her down.

She also knew that Winter was practically raised by his grandmother and knew that when they did settle down he wouldn't try to hold her down. They wouldn't be husband and wife but rather…partners.

**I don't really know what to say to this but it is late and I have to go to sleep.**

**I hope you enjoyed this fanfic.**

**I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.**

**This is Phoenix-Fire Power over and out.**


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